


Train Station

by FlyingUnhindered



Category: The Gray Havens (Band)
Genre: Gen, Salvation, Songfic, Tickets, Train Station
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:48:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24884089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlyingUnhindered/pseuds/FlyingUnhindered
Summary: A short story based off of The Gray Havens' song Train Station.
Relationships: Original Character(s) & Original Character(s)
Kudos: 4





	Train Station

How long had they been waiting? Maria clung to her mother’s hand and to her older brother’s hand, stomach growling.

“Mama, I’m tired.” And hot. All she wanted right now was to take off her fur-lined coat, eat something, and curl up on the ground to sleep. No matter if the ground was cold, hard stone; she just wanted to stop standing here in line, stop doing almost absolutely nothing.

Her mother looked down at the young girl. “Well, you’ll just have to wait,” she answered. “And keep your coat on, for goodness’ sake! Some thieving peasant would love to steal it if you laid it on the ground!”

Maria reluctantly pulled the coat back on just as the ground trembled and shook - a tell-tale sign that the trains were coming. Her brother pulled on her hand anxiously. “C’mon! Maybe we’ll get on one this time!”

There were orderly lines of people waiting to board the trains only as long as there were no trains to board. When the loud, long trains made of steel - or sometimes even gold - slowed and finally stopped, all lines dispersed into a mob of people trying to escape the endless train station. People pushed and shoved and waved money in the conductors’ faces in hopes of being allowed inside. The conductors of the less expensive, less popular trains bellowed their ticket prices at the top of their lungs in hopes that someone would come to them. And they came. The trains left as quickly as they had come, and they were always full to capacity.

Over the din of shouting voices Maria heard a new sound. A conductor was singing. “Come follow me! _I’ll_ buy your tickets, and I’ll pay your fees! For I know your cost, and without this train you will be lost!”

Although Maria couldn’t see him, she stared in his direction anyway. Other heads turned, and some of the poorer people forced their way through the crowd toward his voice. Maria’s mother laughed and turned her attention back to the train they were trying to board. “What does he think he’s doing? He must be a fake, claiming he’ll pay for anyone who wants to ride his train. Or else he’s terribly desperate, and I don’t know how paying people to use your train instead of a different one would help him anyway.”

Ignoring her mother’s words, Maria strained on tip-toes to see over the crowd and catch a glimpse of the man who was still singing. Her aunt nudged her mother. “We probably aren’t going to get onto this train anyway, and it’ll be a while before the next one comes, so we may as well just see what this fool is doing.”

Maria nodded quickly. “I want to see him!”

“Well…” Mama laughed derisively. “I suppose it would be a change from just standing here…”

They joined the quickly growing number of people swarming toward the sound of the conductor as people going the opposite direction passed them, running to their friends and families to tell them about this supposedly free train. Others took advantage of the diversion to secure their seats on some of the nicer trains, whose conductors were annoyedly lowering their prices so that people would come to them.

All around Maria’s family, people laughed and made fun of the crazy conductor.

“When I get there, I’ll just ask him what 1 plus 1 is. I bet he doesn’t even know how to count!”

“Well, when I see him, I’m going to tell him that I hope his train doesn’t blow up here because it would mess up some of the other trains!”

“I’m going to ask where he stole the train from!”

“I bet he’ll just give me money if I ask! Easy way to get richer, eh?”

After what seemed like an eternity, they reached the edge of the crowd gathered around the conductor. He smiled warmly. Bending down, he began drawing on the ground with his finger. Maria gasped. The ground was cold, hard, stone, yet under his finger it appeared to be fine dust or sand! She stomped her foot to confirm that yes, it really was rock-solid stone.

Nobody spoke as he continued to draw. When he stood up, Maria craned her head to see what he had drawn.

“Throw your tickets on the ground,” he said. His voice was not raised, yet due to the lack of other sounds, it reached the back of the crowd with clarity. “I’ll give you mine instead.”

For another moment, nobody moved. Then an old, stooped man with shabby clothes hobbled forward and dropped his ticket onto the picture. The conductor smiled, fished a ticket out of one of his pockets, and handed it to the old man.

Hesitantly, as if fearing it was all a dream, people began to edge forward. The train conductor handed out tickets as they released their old ones. Maria wondered at his seemingly endless supply of tickets.

She felt a tug on her arm from her mother. “Come on,” Mama said. “He’s a big fool, and he probably made us miss our chance to get on the train.”

“Why can’t we just ride his train?” Maria countered.

Her mother gave her a sharp look. “Ride on _his_ train? It probably won’t get five feet before he crashes it or something! If he thinks he’s going to pay for everyone’s tickets, he’s clearly not right in the head.”

As they walked away, Maria could hear the conductor begin to sing again. “Come, follow me. I'll buy your tickets, and I'll pay your fees, for I know what you cost. Believe me; without this train you will be lost!” She craned her neck backward to catch a final glimpse of the man. She couldn’t see what was so wrong about his train.

Like Mama had expected, the train they had been hoping to board had already left the station. Inwardly, Maria groaned. They were going to have to wait for a long time. “Can I wander around for a little while?” she begged. “I can find my way back, and the next train won’t be coming for a while.”

After receiving a reluctant nod from her mother, she scampered away, running back to the place where the conductor was. The mass of people around the train was growing steadily larger, most of them jeering onlookers, but a few who actually believed the conductor among them. She pushed between people and squeezed around others. Breathless, she finally reached the front of the crowd and hesitantly approached the conductor. He smiled warmly at her.

“Can I- Can I have a- a ticket?” she asked timidly. “Please?”

The man nodded. “Of course, but you must drop your old ticket first.” Maria readily added hers to the pile and held out her hand.

A commotion in the crowd caught her attention. “Where is he?” a voice shouted. “Where is the man who lies and deceives, the man who pretends his train of grace is free?” People began parting left and right so soldiers could swarm in. Maria shrank back while they approached and surrounded the kindly, seemingly unfazed conductor.

“What are you going to do to him?” someone called from the crowd.

A particularly tall soldier swung around to face the people, a cruel smile on his face. “We’ll take him to the tracks and nail him there so he’ll never come back!” he yelled. Maria’s wail of “No!” was drowned out in wild cheers and gleeful cries.

Someone ran up behind her. “I was right! I thought you would be here, Maria!” It was her brother. “What’s happening?”

“They’re- They’re going to _kill_ him!” she sobbed.

“Oh, really? Mama would be interested to see this!” He disappeared again into the crowd, leaving his sister to watch the soldiers’ brutal treatment of the conductor, who had yet to answer a single of his oppressors’ accusations.

Maria’s brother returned with her mother and aunt, both excited to watch the death of the man who had done nothing but good to anyone. Behind them, the crowd swelled in size as the word was spread from person to person. “They’re going to kill the conductor!”

Spanning the many train tracks were large, strong bridges onto which thousands swarmed, eager to catch a glimpse of the conductor’s final moments. Maria found herself carried along with the masses, pulled along by her mother and brother, who gripped her arms so tightly that she felt they would drop off from lack of circulation if they didn’t let go soon.

The first of her family to spot him, Maria realized the train conductor was directly below them. She gasped when she saw him. He was bleeding from countless wounds, still not speaking a word to those who kicked and punched him and offering no resistance as they forced him to lie across the tracks, head on one rail, feet stretching across to a different track.

Maria wanted to turn away, wanted to shut the image out of her mind, now amplified by the metallic clangs ringing out from below her, but there were too many people pressing around her, for she was at the edge of the bridge. When they finally stopped, she almost dared to believe that there was still hope… until she heard the first whistle of the first train. Cheers erupted on all sides and a second whistle rang out. Two trains barrelled down the tracks at full speed toward the conductor, one to crush his head and chest, the other to run over his legs, adding their toots and screeches to the chaotic noise of celebration above them. Those who had been lucky enough to ride the trains waved and yelled up to those watching.

Maria closed her eyes and tears began to drip down her cheeks. A few ran down her nose, but she didn’t care enough to wipe them away. In a sudden burst of motion, she pushed herself backward into the crowd, away from her family. She elbowed and shoved and squeezed around people, slowly leaving the bridge. After fifteen minutes she left the crowd behind and doubled over to catch her breath, hot tears still finding their way down her face.

Once she had taken a couple deep breaths, Maria started running. All she wanted right now was to be as far away from the crowd, whose cheers she could still hear from this far away. When she felt she could run no more, she found herself at the conductor’s train of grace. Collapsing to the ground, she curled up and wept.

All of a sudden, the ground began to shake. Was it an earthquake? Maria sat up, a spark of hope daring to light itself in her heart for a reason she couldn’t explain. She wiped her eyes and looked around, straining to see if his familiar form was hiding in the shadows, but she didn’t see him. Within a few minutes, the shaking subsided, and with it, her hope. Tears filled her eyes again as she picked up her ticket off the top of the pile of tickets and stared at it blankly.

That was when a hand landed on her shoulder. She didn’t move. She didn’t care anymore.

“Why are you crying?”

Maria whirled around and gawked at the conductor in surprise. He held out a hand to help her up, and she took it mechanically. She stared at him for a long moment in shock. “I- I thought you were- were dead!” Large scars were plainly visible on his head. “I thought they killed you!” There was a hole through each of his hands where the soldiers must have nailed him to the track. “I- ” She didn’t know what to say.

The conductor smiled. “I came back.”

Without another thought, Maria hugged him in relief and joy. “How…?” she managed to ask. “You- How- ”

He didn’t answer her question. Instead he returned the hug. When she finally let go, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a ticket. “Do you still want to ride on my train?”

“Oh yes! Of course!”

He pointed to her ticket, which she was still clutching in one hand. “You have to let go of your old ticket to take the new one.”

Maria dropped the ticket like it was on fire and held out her hands, smiling wide. The conductor placed the ticket in her hand just as someone ran up to them.

“Maria! We’ve been looking all over for you! Where- ” Her brother broke off when he realized who was standing beside his sister.

“Would you like a ticket too?”

Her brother shrank back at the sight of the very much alive conductor holding a ticket out to him calmly. “I- I- ” He turned and ran away as fast as he could.

People slowly began to creep back to the train and conductor. Some bolted at the sight of him, much like Maria’s brother had, but others overcame their fears, inexplicably drawn to him, whether from guilt and shame or awe, Maria didn’t know.

Her mother edged to the front of the crowd. “M-Maria,” she said nervously, glancing at the conductor like he was a lion who might spring at any moment. “Maria, w-we need to get- get in line…”

Maria looked to the conductor, then to her ticket, back to the conductor, and finally met her mother’s gaze. “I’m not going.”

“N-n-not- ”

The girl shook her head definitively. “I’m riding on the train of grace, not any other train. You should come with me.”

Her mother shook her head violently. “I- No- But- ” She opened and closed her mouth several times without saying a word. Eventually she disappeared into the crowd again. Maria smiled sadly as she watched her leave. The invitation was for everyone, but not everyone would accept it.

The conductor raised his voice and began to sing the familiar song. 

And he shouted you, come follow me

I'll buy your tickets and I'll pay your fees

Cuz I know what you cost

Believe me without this train you will be lost


End file.
